As a life-long gamer and, more recently, a tablet game developer, I spend a fair amount of time thinking about what does and doesn't work with tablet UI design, which naturally leads to some musings on how I'd build a tablet from the ground up if I had the chance to. I know some people are already thinking about contact lenses and virtual touchscreens that get projected onto thin air, but I'd predict that we're going to have tablets for a good long while, I think they'll outlast traditional mouse/keyboard/monitor setups by at least a couple decades... so let's set about unlocking their untapped potential!

1. Tactile Feedback

One of the great things about a tablet is how intuitive it can be if done right. Look at a game like Flight Control, just draw a flight path on the screen and airplanes will follow it... don't need much more explanation than that. The fact that they make iPad games for cats, dogs, and babies speaks volumes to how a well-designed tablet interface plays to instinctive behavior rather than learned behavior.

But sadly, where our instincts want multiple senses to agree with each other, whatever you touch on a tablet is just going to feel like glass no matter what it looks or sounds like. This isn't a terribly big problem when you're writing an e-mail, but in a fast-paced game you're going to want to keep your eyes on the action and not on helping your fingers find the buttons. This isn't a problem for traditional controller-based games since they're designed with tactile feedback in mind. And while it's possible to design a game without buttons in it, it can be limiting. Sometimes, you just need to throw a button on the screen, especially if you're porting a console game to a tablet, and it would be great if those buttons felt as natural as they do when you've got a controller in your hand.

I've seen a few different approaches to this, all of which seem to be from three or four years ago in articles or videos that end with the hopeful but now inaccurate phrase "and we expect these to be commercially available by 2012." There's the display that physically raises bits of the display (because how better to make a button feel three-dimensional than to actually create the shape of one in three dimensions?), but what really intrigues me are the displays that take advantage of the way our skin senses touch and create electrical fields that can mimic other textures. I haven't experienced either of these so I couldn't tell you which approach I favor (although I can't argue with "let's just have both").

On top of that, let's throw in old-school rumble technology. How better to please your lizard brain than by actually making the screen rumble during a giant explosion? But rather than just throw a single shaking motor on there like the good ol' N64 Rumble Pak, why not take a look at what Valve's doing with their Steam controller? Articles seem sparse on the specifics but all I keep hearing is that the force feedback is crazy well-done.

2. Stereo freaking sound already.

I don't know what Android tablets are like, but my iPad has just a single speaker on it that tends to get covered up by the hand you're holding it with. What I'd really like to see is four speakers, one on each side of the device, and use the same software that orients the screen to appropriately assign the speakers as left, right, and center channels depending on how you're holding the device. You don't need big honking speakers to get a good sound experience these days, just check out the 3DS. Two speakers each smaller than a dime and you get a pretty good 3D sound experience out of them. Come on, tablets, it's time to up your game.

3. Better color gamut coverage

The latest displays have taken resolution about as far as we're gonna take it. Where to now? Well... standard RGB displays sadly leave out huge chunks of colors that the human eye can percieve — I find this most noticeable in the range between blue and green, but there's shortcomings all around the color wheel. Every once in a while you see a company throw a yellow or cyan primary into their monitor to try and cover these gaps but thus far it hasn't seem to have caught on (in part, I'd wager, because you'd need special software to really take advantage of 4+-channel color)... but I'd personally love a device that shows me more of the colors I can see.

4. Pressure-sensitive touch

I've had a Cintiq for several years and a Wacom tablet before that, and I've loved them both. One of the key differences you get from either of those devices compared to an iPad touch screen is the idea of pressure-sensitivity. You can bear down with your stylus to make a thick line, or gently glide it across the screen for a thin one. Or, you know, you can configure your brushes to do other fancy stuff, too, that's just one example. My iPad can't tell gentle from firm, it just knows "touching" and "not touching," it would be great, especially for drawing apps -- but also for games with on-screen-buttons -- to be able to register changes in pressure.

And while we're talking about it, it would be nice to have some better-precision styluses than those eraser-sized foam-tipped ones.

5. Any-Angle 3D

I can hear some of you groaning already, denoucing 3D anything as a gimmick that just needs to die already. I may be in the minority, but I own a 3DS and I actually like its most-mocked feature. But it could stand some improvement. It's a little tiring to need to hold the 3DS a certain specific angle to your face and a certain distance away. Playing a game like A Link Between Worlds sometimes you get lost in the 3D illusion and then you try and crane your head to one angle to see something better, and then the illusion is instantly broken.

So, what I'm thinking... why not have the camera track your gaze and adjust its 3D accordingly? I'll admit, I don't know much about how lenticular displays work, I'm not sure how possible it would be to make a 3D display that works just as well in portrait orientation as it does in landscape... a quick Google search seems to indicate that this would indeed be possible but it seems like there's issues with it to be worked out still.

6. Touch-sensitivity on the back, not just on the front.

One of the most common criticisms I've heard about the control scheme in our current work in progress, The Day We Fought Space, is that while it's very intuitive, your hands block some of the view of the action when you're steering the ship and aiming your weapons. We have some alternate control schemes available that mitigate this issue, but since the only way to interact with the screen is by touching it, it's never going to go away completely.

Unless... you could have touch input somewhere that isn't the screen at all, like the back of the device? The PS Vita has a setup like that, if I'm not mistaken. Admittedly, you'd lose some of the intuitiveness of touching the things on screen you want to interact with, but throw in the tactile feedback I mentioned in point #1 and you could have a seriously powerful gaming interface in your hands.

In Conclusion

Unfortunately, what I expect will be the biggest hurdles in getting a tablet like this on the market will not be technical ones but legal ones. I'm sure most of these ideas, even the ones I might think are original ideas, are already patented by some company jealously guarding their secrets, and getting the best of all worlds fused into a single device will remain a legal impossibility. But that's a rant for another day...

A handful that I brought out again for a second play-through:
A Link to the Past (SNES)
Link's Awakening (GB)
Oracle of Ages (GBC)
Oracle of Seasons (GBC)
Ratchet & Clank HD (PS3)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Gen)
Super Meat Boy (PC)

A bunch of new games that I started into but have more work to do in before I could consider them 'complete':
Antichamber (PC)
Awesomenauts (PC)
Bee Leader (iOS)
Castle Crashers (PC)
Disgaea (PS2)
Dustforce (PC)
FTL: Faster than Light (PC)
The Impossible Game (360)
Luminous Arc 3 (DS)
Mark of the Ninja (PC)
NightSky (PC)
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (PS3)
Reus (PC)
Spelunky (360)
They Bleed Pixels (PC)
A Virus Named Tom (PC)
Waveform (PC)

... And a few that I only just barely tasted, typically right before getting distracted by one of the games on the above lists:
Chantelise (PC)
Intrusion 2 (PC)
Ittle Dew (PC)
Mariokart 7 (3DS)
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (PS3)
Shoot Many Robots (PC)
S.O.S. (SNES)
Skullgirls (360)
Zombie Driver (360)

Sometimes the line between work and play gets a bit blurry, which is what brought my attention to the following games (plus some others already listed above):
Gradius III (SNES)
Legendary Wings (NES)
Parodius Da! (SNES)
XOP Black (PC)

In addition to these, there's the multitude of games I had a go at during the Midwest Gaming Classic and trips to Rossi's Arcade.

And last, but not least, of course, I did spend quite a bit of time playing various alpha and beta builds of The Day We Fought Space (iOS).

I doubt this is an exhaustive list... but it's what, for whatever reason, I remember playing this year.

What stands out? Well, Rogue Legacy and Spelunky have gotten me excited about a whole new subgenre. A Link Between Worlds restored my faith in the Zelda franchise. Project X Zone was quirky and weird but left an impression on me. Dodonpachi Maximum taught me how well bullet hell and tablet gaming go together. Giana Sisters was visually stunning. Bleed blended fun and challenge together masterfully. Fez was just straight-up brilliant.

On November 26, 2013, I sent a sincere but unorthodox letter to my two U.S. senators, my U.S. representative, and the President of the United States. What follows is the unedited correspondence between me and my elected officials:

26 November 2013. My initial letter, sent online via various official contact forms:

Dear [Rep. Pocan / Sen. Baldwin / Sen. Johnson / Mr. President],

So I was thinking.

The name "The United States of America" isn't so much a name for a country as it is a rough description of what the country is.

Also, as descriptions go it's not terribly accurate. I mean if you're going to split hairs, this place really ought to be named "The United States, Commonwealths, District, and Territories of America and the Pacific." But that's a mounthful.

And to make matters worse, the colloquial form "America" and its corresponding demonym "American" are ambiguous because are you talking about America the country or America the continents?

I mean, our neighbors have names. Canada is a fine name for a country, as is Mexico. Why not us? After almost 240 years nobody can say we haven't earned the right.

As far as what name to choose, there are plenty of options, like the Revolutionary War–era "Freedonia" or "Alleghany," or Frank Lloyd Wright's preferred term, "Usonia." Heck, I'd even settle for the modern tongue-in-cheek "'Murica." Better a silly name than none at all.

I realize this is not a terribly important issue but seeing how polarized Congress is right now and how generally paralyzed the federal government has become in addressing issues that carry even trace amounts of partisanship, maybe now's the right time to do a little bit of clean-up and touch on some of the small stuff.

Sincerely,
Catherine Kimport

The first response recieved (not counting the automated "thanks for contacting so-and-so" messages) was from Sen. Baldwin who replied in an e-mail dated 6 December 2013:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your disappointment with the performance of the United States Congress. I appreciate you taking the time to write me about this important issue.

While we all hear a lot about the wide distance between Democrats and Republicans, the widest and most important distance in our political system is between the content of the debate in Washington, D.C. and the concerns of working families in places like Wisconsin.

When my grandparents were raising me, I learned that, if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead. The Wisconsinites I talk to grew up learning the same thing. They are working as hard as ever. And they deserve to get ahead. But many are barely getting by. People are still working for that middle class dream: a good job that pays the bills, health care coverage you can rely on, a home you can call your own, a chance to save for your kids' college education, a secure retirement. That's the biggest gap of all: the gap between the economic security Wisconsinites work so hard to achieve, and the economic uncertainty that they are asked to settle for.

While Wisconsinites do not all agree about what their representatives in Congress should do, they want to see all of us working together to find solutions, even if it takes some spirited debate. I believe that it is possible for Members of Congress to stay true to their core principles while reaching compromise to move our country forward.

Recently, I worked in a bipartisan manner with my counterpart Senator Ron Jonson (R-WI) to establish the Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission to move federal nominations forward, including vacant federal judgeships in Wisconsin. I look forward to working with Senator Johnson on other issues that will move Wisconsin forward.

In the Senate at large, I have worked with my colleagues Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) to fix a Medicare reimbursement provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that has been a windfall to Massachusetts hospitals at the expense of hospitals in other states includingWisconsin. The Hospital Payment Fairness Act (S. 183) reverses this provision, returning Medicare hospital reimbursements to the state-based pools that existed before the ACA.

While these are a few examples of bipartisan comprise, I know that there is much work yet to be accomplished by Congress, I am confident that we can reach compromises that bridge our philosophical differences and pass legislation that is in the best interest of our country. Please know that I will keep your thoughts in mind as I continue to seek opportunities to find common ground with my colleagues in the Senate.

Once again, thank you for contacting my office. It is important for me to hear from the people of Wisconsin on the issues, thoughts and concerns that matter most to you. If I can be of further assistance, please visit my website at www.baldwin.senate.gov for information on how to contact my office.

So, Project X Zone left a big impression on me, apparently... maybe in part because I was playing it around Halloween time, that magical time of year where the boundary between reality and fiction is at its blurriest (a recurring theme in Project X Zone and its prequel, Namco X Capcom), but whatever the reason, I've been thinking about what my dream roster for a no-licenses-barred PXZ sequel might look like. Here's what I've come up with (limiting roster sizes to 42 of each type of unit, just because it seemed like a nice round number):

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, units are made up of a "pair unit" of two inseparable characters, typically from the same canon (with some exceptions), that get mixed-and-matched with one of your various "solo units" to make a three-person fighting team. And yes, I'm aware that many of the characters I picked are antagonists from their respective stories. Spoiler alert: they join up into your party fairly frequently in Project X Zone.

And yes, I snuck in a shameless self-promotion cameo. Deal with it.

Pair Units

Zummi

Calla

Adventures of the Gummi Bears

Petra

Nazuna

Arcana Heart

Doc

Marty

Back to the Future

Starbuck

Athena

Battlestar Galactica

Jade

Peyj

Beyond Good and Evil

Buffy

Satsu

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV / Comics)

Fred

Willow

Angel / Buffy

Li Mu Bai

Shu Lien

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Kasumi

Ayame

Dead or Alive

Digger

Shadowchild

Digger

The Doctor

[see note 1]

Doctor Who

Dust

Fidget

Dust: An Elysian Tail

Ramza

Alma

Final Fantasy Tactics

Terra

Celes

Final Fantasy VI

Aeris

Sephiroth

Final Fantasy VII

Yuna

Auron

Final Fantasy X

Jayne

Kaylee

Firefly

Hermione

Ron

Harry Potter

Zaphod

Trillian

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Kirby

Meta-Knight

Kirby's Dream Land

Legolas

Gimli

Lord of the Rings

Eowyn

Aragorn

Lord of the Rings

Vanessa

Fatima

Luminous Arc

Megaman Volnutt

Roll Caskett

Megaman Legends

Schlock

Legs

Schlock Mercenary

Ramona

Roxy

Scott Pilgrim

Jon Snow

Arya

Song of Ice and Fire

Brienne

Jamie

Song of Ice and Fire

Seung Mina

Taki

Soul Calibur

Han Solo

Chewbacca

Star Wars

Tassadar

Raynor

Starcraft

Chun Li

Hsien-Ko

Street Fighter / Darkstalkers

Luigi

Tails

Super Mario Bros. / Sonic the Hedgehog

Ayame

Rikimaru

Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

Peter

Lucy

The Chronicles of Narnia

Link

Zelda

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Toe Jam

Earl

Toe Jam and Earl

Wall-E

Eve

Wall-E

Claudia

Jinks

Warehouse 13

Kitty Pride

Psylocke

X-Men

Ratchet

Clank

Ratchet & Clank

Jack Bauer

Chloe

24

[1] I'm still only on season 2 of the reboot, so for the time being I'm leaving unspecified which companion and which incarnation of The Doctor

Solo Units

Ripley

Aliens

Ash

Army of Darkness

The Kid

Bastion

Batman

Batman

Wryn

Bleed

Faith

Buffy

Frey

Buffy (comics)

Lucy Diamond

D.E.B.S.

Hammer

Fable 2

Poison

Final Fight

River Tam

Firefly

Giana

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

Kratos

God of War

Indiana Jones

Indiana Jones

Izuna

Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja

Lemeza

La Mulana

Little Prince

Le Petit Prince

Tron Bonne

Megaman Legends

Samus

Metroid

Barry

Monster Dash / Jetpack Joyride

Ms. Pac Man

Ms. Pac Man

Mulan

Mulan

Saya

Namco X Capcom

Amaterasu

Okami

Red

Pokémon Red/Blue

Chell

Portal

Eilonwy

Prydain Chronicles

Q*Bert

Q*Bert

Charme

Recettear

Kinzie

Saints Row

Miho

Sin City

Danaerys

Song of Ice and Fire

Tyrion

Song of Ice and Fire

Spyro

Spyro the Dragon

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Star Wars

Katchoo

Strangers in Paradise

Chun Li

Street Fighter II

Isaac

The Binding of Isaac

Equinox

The Day We Fought Space

Parizade

The Thousand and One Nights

Anibelle

The Wotch

V

V for Vendetta

I haven't taken the time to list out all the stages and enemies you would fight in this series, but to give you a taste of the general flavor of the series then imagine yourself in the middle of Zanarkand, confronted by Yunalesca, and then all of a sudden a bunch of Reavers drop in, Kerrigan shows up and then you also get flanked by the Zerg, and then for no particular reason Mewtwo is breeding Protopets and you need to fight them too.